


Smile at me, too

by ProfessionalCatFan (idemandahug)



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Angst, Arguing, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Isolation, Jealousy, Loneliness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-09
Updated: 2017-11-09
Packaged: 2019-01-31 07:53:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12677616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idemandahug/pseuds/ProfessionalCatFan
Summary: A reserve course student befriends the 77th class. Komaeda struggles with the resulting jealousy and loneliness.





	Smile at me, too

**Author's Note:**

> I think I was going somewhere with this but it got muddled.

He’s not surprised when a game of rock paper scissors ends in him buying drinks for everyone. He’s not surprised when the vending machine eats his money. He’s not surprised when the machine suddenly dispenses hundreds of soda cans on the ground, far more than he wanted.

He’s not surprised, because this is his life. Odd happenings are common for Nagito Komaeda thanks to his luck. He simply laughs it off and kneels to pick up the cans.

Though getting so many drinks makes up for the lost money, having to carry all of them back is quite an inconvenience. Can he call this situation good luck, or bad luck?

Then he sees a pair of shoes. Komaeda looks up. A boy about his age is staring at him, blinking, dressed in a familiar uniform.

“Do you… need some help?” the reserve course student asks.

“Ah, there’s no need to trouble yourself,” Komaeda says, smiling, and returns to collecting the drinks.

But the student helps anyway.

Once the cans are safely gathered in a plastic bag, Komaeda thanks him. “I’m Nagito Komaeda,” he says, because he sees no reason not to introduce himself.

“Oh, um, Hajime Hinata.”

Komaeda hums. A common name. An average face. He truly can’t see anything remarkable about him.

And yet, his luck allowed them to meet.

It’s difficult to believe in pointless coincidences when luck controls his life.

As he returns to the classroom, he wonders whether meeting Hinata is good luck, or bad luck.

* * *

 

When Mioda enters the class followed by a reserve course student, and Komaeda nearly jolts from his seat. Even though it’s been months since their encounter, he recognises that average face.

Apparently, Mioda and Hinata met because she heard him humming a song she likes. After a barrage of questions about the song and the band, she dragged him to the class for further interrogation. Hinata seems uncomfortable as Mioda presents him to the class, but not unhappy. His eyes dart around the classroom, taking in as many details as possible. Komaeda watches him evenly.

Out of all the reserve course students, Mioda brought Hinata, the one he met before.

How lucky.

It _is_ lucky, right?

More and more of his classmates crowd around Hinata: they voice sympathies at being pulled around by Mioda, and ask about who he is and his uniform. Hinata lowers his head and explains he’s a reserve course student. Komaeda expects the symbols of hope to lose interest, because Hinata’s a nobody, just an average, talentless student. And yet, to Komaeda’s surprise, he still has their attention. They want to know more about the reserve course, his classes, and Hinata himself.

On the empty side of the classroom, Komaeda ignores the heavy feeling in his chest.

* * *

 

The coincidences pile up.

One of them will bump into Hinata by the fountain, or he’ll visit the classroom to give back a CD Mioda lent him, or he’ll return a lost item he found somewhere at the school: something always leads to Hinata hanging out with the others. It becomes normal to see Hinata with any member of the 77th class as the weeks pass. 

And Komaeda can only watch, confused, frustrated, something weighing on his heart. Why would the symbols of hope accept a reserve course student, as if he’s their equal? Is this his luck’s work? Something else?

He doesn’t understand. This isn’t right.

“Ah, Komaeda-san?”

Komaeda blinks and looks at a smiling Sonia from his seat.

“Would you like to join the class picnic as well, Komaeda-san? We’re writing a list of everyone able to attend.”

He looks at the list, and isn’t surprised to see Hinata’s name already there.

He declines.

* * *

 

“Do you have a problem with me?”

That day when Hinata helped Komaeda pick up his drinks might have been the only time they really talked, and yet, for some reason, Hinata has now called Komaeda behind the school. Komaeda looks in his eyes—determined, but nervous. He’s as average as ever.

Komaeda truly doesn’t understand.

“You’re always glaring at me,” Hinata continues. “You leave when I hang out with the others, and you never say a word to me. It’s fine if you hate me, but I’d at least like to know why. Did I do something to you?”

“…Hate?” Komaeda frowns, suddenly confused. “I don’t hate you.”

“Then, why—?”

“You just annoy me.”

Hinata stares at him for a moment. “Huh…? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means what it means,” Komaeda says. “You don’t know your place. You always leech off the others, like you think you can be friends with them.”

“I… I _am_ friends with them,” Hinata shoots back, with a surprising amount of confidence.

“No, they’re not. Don’t you see? They’re on a completely different level from the talentless. They _shine_ , Hinata-kun. They’re the brilliant symbols of hope. It’s something the pitifully average could never attain.”

He seems to have struck a nerve. Hinata glares at him, hands balling into fists.

“You can never be one of them,” Komaeda continues. “You were born talentless, and you’ll die talentless. To them, you'll always be an outsider. Nothing can change that, nor how plain and ordinary you are. Next to the symbols of hope, we’re nothing more than worthless, lowly—”

Then Hinata charges at him and grabs his shirt, yanking Komaeda forward as he lurches.

“You think I don’t know that?!” Hinata yells. “You think I don’t remind myself that every day?!”

Komaeda stares, wide eyed, blinking.

“I get it, okay?! I’m average, and plain, and ordinary, and boring. I know there’s no reason for the Super High School Level Students to like me. But you don’t have to shove that in my face!” At the word ‘shove’ he pushes Komaeda away as if to prove his point. Komaeda staggers but stays on his feet.

“You’re… angry?” Komaeda asks, still reeling, still confused; he only stated the truth.

Hinata looks at him.

“What the hell is wrong with you?”

* * *

 

News that Komaeda and Hinata had a fight spreads quickly, though the details were muddled. By the end of the day, the rumours said the two of them were in a first fight that resulted in broken bones. The idea almost makes Komaeda laugh.

When they return to the classroom, his classmates are eager to learn what happened, while Tsumiki is frantic about any potential injuries though no actual fighting happened. As she looks over Komaeda, he can hear the others talking to Hinata.

“Damn, I can’t believe you guys were actually in a fight!”

“Did Komaeda start it?”

“It must’ve been him. He’s always causing trouble.”

They’re all crowded around Hinata, talking, grinning, laughing. Because… He’s their friend. Even though he’s average, even though he should be the same as Komaeda, he gets to be their friend.

…Perhaps the true outsider was never Hinata.

Could finally realising that be a form of good luck?

No.

Good luck would be receiving those smiles as well.

Komaeda tells Tsumiki he feels a little sick and leaves. No one stops him.


End file.
